when news collides... hicks vs bush/downer/ruddock/howard

Bring hicks home now

Wishing a merry christmas to all muslims from the bush administration:

16 Saudis Released From Guantanamo

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/12/14/terror/main2269566.shtml

The detention of Saudis at Guantanamo has been an irritant in the relationship between the Bush administration and the Saudi kingdom, a close U.S. ally. Two Saudis died in the prison earlier this year in what American officials said were suicides. But many Saudis don't believe that explanation, saying the detainees were abused, a claim the U.S. denies.

When the nationals of the country which financed and planned the 9/11 attacks can go free and the offical spokesman for the Taliban can be given a place to study at Harvard, what is an Australian doing behind bars, without charge, for the fifth year running with no end in sight?

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/family-put-on-hold-for-hicks-christmas-call/2006/12/14/1165685825215.html

Terror arms sale link to army
ROGUE elements in the Australian military are feared to be behind the blackmarket sale of rocket launchers and guns to terrorist and criminal groups.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/army-link-to-terror-arms-sale/2006/12/14/1165685831075.html

Now remember back to a federal auditor generals report from two years ago which stated that around $3-5 billion dollars worth of army equipment was simply missing or could not be accounted for by woefully inadequate inventory records and ask your self about the ministers responsible and their ministerial responsibilities. Also ask yourself if this is a story in search of a fact

The suspected army link that has unnerved NSW police and federal intelligence agencies because it suggests that the underworld has found a way of bypassing elaborate checks aimed at preventing terrorist weapons entering the country.

Reports suggesting an "elaborate" system of checks, needs itself checked. Also, I am assuming this means that the australian army is curently under investigation by ASIO, the feds and any number of counter terrorism squads?
................................................................
a truly sad requiem
China's Rare River Dolphin Now Extinct, Experts Announce

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/12/061214-dolphin-extinct.html

"It's possible that we missed one or two animals [during the search], but we can say the baiji is functionally extinct," August Pfluger, a Swiss economist-turned-naturalist who financed the expedition, said in a telephone interview from Wuhan, China.

The price we pay for electricity.
................................................................
only wealthy terrorists need read this story

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB116598078991348617-ixe9zZfYn1035s3P88WdMJZDTTI_20071213.html?mod=blogs

....................................
the future of the worlds economy:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/14/AR2006121400681.html

the chinese are just building up a nice little trillion dollar buffer before they have to do the inevitable and become big boys on the world stage and float those yuans. Till then they can just keep on owning a bigger and bigger slice of the US.

The Chinese economy "would be more effective under a regime where currency values are determined in a competitive open marketplace based upon economic fundamentals," Paulson said.
Since January, China has overtaken Mexico as the United States' second-largest trading partner, behind only Canada, the Commerce Department said this week. Total trade so far this year between the countries is valued at $281 billion. While U.S. exports to China are rising sharply, they remain a fraction of Chinese exports to the United States. Between January and October, the value of Chinese goods imported to the United States exceeded the value of U.S. exports to China by $190 billion -- more than a quarter of America's goods deficit worldwide for the first 10 months of this year.

Wonder whats happening with the Australia/China free trade pact after we gave their command economy a clean bill of free market status in exchange for a handjob from a plain, yet perky, maid at Mark Vailles hotel. Was it good for you Minister or will you rely your favourite line, that stale old chestnut, "I cant recall"?

nuff said

beat me like a gong

DLP wins one ....

fuk me, my memories are racing back to watching Bob Santamaria spout about shit and communism before World Championship Wrestling on a Sunday afternoon. So many years ago, so many Mario Milano moments ago. Now they are back in parliament and they are as shocked as anyone else. I feel so old for just having these memories, please Jesus kill me now.

..............................

Apart from renaming his failed Iraq adventure, with the ever catchy, post Maoist, "the new way forward", the Bushies and their allies (blair and howard) are now strenuously pushing the line:

Its all Iran and Syrias fault.

Followed by the liberal media.

It would be funny, if people weren't dying like flies.

Now the Known Unknown wants to rebrand the Long War or the War on Terror and emphasises its importance by comparing it to a soap opera. He is nothing if not an arse covering peice of slime.

“With what you know now, what might you have done differently in Iraq?” Rumsfeld offers a remarkable response:
I don’t think I would have called it the war on terror. I don’t mean to be critical of those who have. Certainly, I have used the phrase frequently. Why do I say that? Because the word ‘war’ conjures up World War II more than it does the Cold War. It creates a level of expectation of victory and an ending within 30 or 60 minutes of a soap opera. It isn’t going to happen that way. Furthermore, it is not a ‘war on terror.’ Terror is a weapon of choice for extremists who are trying to destabilize regimes and (through) a small group of clerics, impose their dark vision on all the people they can control. So ‘war on terror’ is a problem for me.

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/12/12/rumsfeld-iraq-terror/

Will Ehud Olmert now be jailed for 20 years for giving away state secrets?:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,1970963,00.html

Mr Olmert's admission comes less than a week after the incoming US secretary of defence, Robert Gates, speculating at a Senate confirmation hearing on Iran's possible motives for trying to build nuclear arms, suggested that Israel had the bomb.

.............................

The White House said the statement was issued in connection with Human Rights Day this week. "It's important to remind people that Syria remains an aggressive violator of human rights."

Oh sweet zombie jesus, the US shipped off dozens of "combatants" to Syria precisely to be tortured. Hypocrisy dont need to slap me in the face too hard to get a reaction.

...............................

My cold is not improving my mood re the LONG WAR

Remember the reason why we now have new rules governing the amount of liquids we can take on planes? Yes? No?

Well, yet another key plank in the original 9/11 x 1,000 plot has been demolished. Like the dwindling number of Britons still charged..28....25...22..17..15...we will need to wait till 2008 to see if the number keeps dropping due to "a complete lack of evidence."

Will Mark Vaile now take back the 100ml law, not a hope, governments do not give up powers easily, especially in an election year knowing that each time a passenger gets on a plane they will think about voting for "trust" and "security".

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Dec. 13 — A judge threw out terrorism charges on Wednesday against Rashid Rauf, a Briton of Pakistani descent whom prosecutors depicted as a major figure in a plot to smuggle liquid explosives onto trans-Atlantic airliners and detonate the bombs in flight.
The ruling means there are now no terrorism charges against two people once accused of being linchpins of a major Al Qaeda bombing plot. The other is Tayib Rauf, Mr. Rauf’s younger brother, who was detained in Britain last August and soon set free without charge.
But it was not clear whether the ruling would clear the way for Rashid Rauf’s return to Britain for questioning on other charges.
Reports of a bombing conspiracy set off a huge alarm in August in Britain and the United States, disrupting air travel when the authorities imposed some of the strictest peacetime security restrictions on passengers.
But less publicly, the alarm created powerful strains between American and British investigators over the timing of a crackdown on suspects in which British authorities rounded up 25 people on Aug. 9 and 10, later charging 17 of them. The other eight, including Tayib Rauf, were set free without charges.
British officials involved in the case said that American investigators had pushed for quicker arrests in the case but that the British had wanted to wait longer to gather admissible evidence.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/13/world/asia/14stancnd.html?hp&ex=1166072400&en=00061ec4d09035cc&ei=5094&partner=homepage

on the back of a further anti-gay christian outing, another christian bites the dust of sin, but at least he isnt gay, thank god, we all say, praise jesus and pass the minolta:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/12/13/national/main2254503.shtml

Aaron Niles, 20, of Waterloo, was arrested Tuesday on three counts of child pornography and one count of indecent solicitation of a child, police said.

meanwhile, another good right wing christian tells the world something that I have suspect for a damn long time:

Soy is making kids 'gay'
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53327

those evil gay bastards (and bitches, to be fair to those evil lesbians) is there no level to which they wil not stoop in their relentless recruiting campaign.

now this is funny: The good news about nuclear destruction
(well it appeals to my sense of humour, remember there is nothing gay about nuclear destruction, its a mans mans way to go.)

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51648

friday, the start of any good weekend

http://www.refugeesinternational.org/content/article/detail/9688?PHPSESSID=91fe1387a63f4346354bcd6f55b188e5

Syria and Iran are bearing the brunt of the Iraqi refugees, house prices in Damascus and Tehran have skyrocketed since the start of the invasion as those who can afford to leave have fled the violence. I spoke to many Iraqis in both countries, doctors driving cabs, engineers cleaning hotels and probably saddest of all, Iraqis who were willing to pay me big wads of american dollars for my passport (along with desperate Afghanis willing to do the same in Iran).

Prior to the invasion, rents in Tehran were around the $400 a month mark with wages around $180-200 a month, now they are up over the $750 mark with wages pretty much stagnant. The Iranians and Syrians are now doing what the US is doing with those entering from south of the border, blameing them for an increase in crime, leading to friction.

In Australia, Mr Howard seized on the (Baker/Hamilton) report's warning that it would be wrong for the US to withdraw troops from Iraq too soon — a course that it said almost certainly would trigger greater sectarian violence, a power vacuum, "greater human suffering, regional destabilisation and a threat to the global economy".

Questions to Howard:

What responsibility do you take for creating the current sectarian violence, power vacuum, greater human suffering, regional destabilisation and the ongoing civil war in Iraq?

Whas there any advice that suggested this outcome before the invasion?

7.30 report:

KERRY O'BRIEN: But when you talk about what a great thing it was to see Saddam Hussein go, and I think you've said 300,000 Iraqis were killed by Saddam - do you know how many Iraqis have been killed since the war?
ALEXANDER DOWNER:
No, there have obviously been various estimates of that. (between 150, 000 - 650,00)
Of course, the tragedy of it is that so many of the Iraqis who have been killed in recent times are being killed by Iraqis and by al Qaeda. Not all of al Qaeda are Iraqis, of course, a lot are foreigners. Al Qaeda has been successful in killing people, attacking Shi'a mosques and trying to encourage sectarian conflict and there is a combination of former Ba'athist regime elements, Saddam Hussein supporters, al Qaeda operatives and, of course, sectarian militias operating mainly, not exclusively, but mainly in and around the Baghdad area, and it makes for a pretty nasty situation. (pentagon estimate of Alquedas role in Iraq ...a very generous 3%)

Downer: Baker Hamilton report that it could easily lead to a regional war drawing in countries like Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria, possibly even Turkey because of the Kurdish issue. (well dealt with prior to invasion as likely outcome by all security agencies but ignored by Coalition of the Incompetent)

downer: So the challenge here, the big picture here is to get the Iraqi security forces to be able to take responsibility for Iraq to the extent that the democratic government can be sustained rather than it fall to terrorists and insurgents. I mean, it's actually as simple as that.
(report after report has highlighted the fact that the training and equipment are inadequate and completely failing, sunni brigades melt away with their equipment to fight the shiia, shiia the same, or else simply refuse to obey any order which places them under an obligation to act against thier fellow co-religion/regionalists. These reports have come at a very steady clip and with increasing desperation from the moment the Iraq army was disbanded, the only people who have benefitted have been the no-bid private contractors who are doing the majority of the training.)

As a sidelight, the downer transcript leaves out a little bit of byplay that is now starting to get to be a familiar strain

"because you're putting a spin on this"

AMANDA VANSTONE: Well, first I'd like to give you an alternative introduction which would be a shock for the ABC. I think Australia would fall over if you gave this sort of introduction.

thats how the vanstone interview on thursday started, and while it has been excluded from the transcipt, its how the downer interview began, pointing out that the ABC were "spinning" the story. It allows the Government to proclaim to their cronies on the board of the ABC bias against them. The culture wars are due to heat up in an election year, watch for many more complaints about the ABC from the conservate side, they hate there motives to be questioned, let alone be discussed. Its a communist plot, obviously, just wait for the first one to call out that the ABC are on the side of the terrorists.

KERRY O’BRIEN: So what responsibility do you as Minister take for the state of your Department?

AMANDA VANSTONE: Kerry, I thought I had answered your question, but let me put it to you another way.

she gave the same non-answer numerous times, responsibility, its a black/welfare/muslim thing. Imagine the temerity of the ABC in pointing out a blatant fault with a government minister. For shame ABC, for shame.

100-percenters

The road to peace is through Baghdad, so the neo-cons said to justify thier war of choice. The rest of the world maintained that the road started in Palestine, but that would require a re-examination of a few questions that the US would much rather ignore.

Now that uber-hawk, Olmert wants it out of the Baker-Hamilton report, so it must be true. Also talks on the return of Syrias Golan Heights in return for peace? You must be joking, theres too much good farm land...oh sorry, its only a security zone...

"If Syria and Iran (are) not committed to that concept, then they shouldn't bother to show up," said Mr Bush, who reiterated his longstanding condition that Iran freeze sensitive nuclear work before any direct talks.

So you can link a perfectly legal nuclear program to the turmoil in Iraq, but dont talk about anything else, links only work when they favour your outcomes.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/07/world/middleeast/08mideast.html?hp&ex=1165554000&en=a8814113081d0a68&ei=5094&partner=homepage

http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/bush-rebuffs-iraq-report/2006/12/08/1165081117343.html

From the washington post:

Eagleburger said after the event that when the group met with Bush, "I don't recall, seriously, that he asked any questions." Even the loyal Baker had to advise his friend's son that "it is time to find a new way forward."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/06/AR2006120601903.html

Whats the bet the Decider will decide to set up another study group comprised solely of chiken hawks to give a better gloss to his failed policy and allow him to "decide" the outcome of the findings. All he needs do is look to Howards little bitch, Cole, to see the way forward for the spin.

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Lieberman_spearheads_Iraq_group_1207.html

for the right wing spin on the report, check through the numerous rantings of the people who led the charge to war:

http://www.nationalreview.com/

the site of the next energy war
(provided we dont cook up an invasion of Iran)

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/12/07/world/main2237023.shtml

Speaking of pay for spin:

Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Chairman of the Environment & Public Works Committee, said today’s hearing about the media and climate change revealed that “Scare tactics should not drive public policy.” The hearing’s purpose was to examine the media’s presentation of climate science and featured scientists and media experts.

“As the Democrats rush to pass costly carbon cap legislation in the next Congress, today’s hearing showed that the so-called ‘scientific consensus’ does not exist. Leading scientists from the U.S. and Australia denounced much of the media for becoming advocates for alarmism rather than objectivity,” Senator James Inhofe said.

“I was particularly interested in testimony by Dr. Daniel Schrag of Harvard University, who believes that manmade emissions are driving global warming. Dr. Schrag said the Kyoto Protocol is not the right approach to take and agreed it would have almost no impact on the climate even if all the nations fully complied,” Inhofe added. Currently 13 of the 15 EU nations are failing to meet the requirements of Kyoto.

During his opening remarks, Senator Inhofe stated, “Rather than focus on the hard science of global warming, the media has instead become advocates for hyping scientifically unfounded climate alarmism.” Senator Inhofe cited criticism from believers in manmade global warming who have slammed the media for presenting “a quasi-religious register of doom, death [and] judgment” and compared the media’s coverage to the “unreality of Hollywood films.”

http://epw.senate.gov/pressitem.cfm?party=rep&id=266540

Now where does this Senator get his largest "donations" from? Have a guess:

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2054654.ece

ok, the easy answer is spelt EXXON. I think it's phonetic for something.

http://climateprogress.org/2006/12/07/the-other-bush-legacy-carbon-emissions-soar/

the limits of new technology, its only as good as the idiots on both ends:

http://www.theage.com.au/news/technology/faulty-online-mapping-linked-to-wrong-turn-disaster/2006/12/08/1165081119464.html

while no other media outlets seem to want to touch this one with a ten foot pole, kudos to The Age for at least trying to hold a government minister accountable for their complete bullshit:

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/pm-withholds-powder-threat-advice/2006/12/07/1165081088359.html

Mean while the ever shrinking aspirational plot to blow up a thousand x 9/11 planes in the UK makes its way to australia. Praise be to fear, it sells so good in the sticks.

"As a result of vulnerabilities exposed in the UK in August with regard to liquids being carried in hand luggage onto international flights, the government this week has taken a decision that as of March 31 next year, all international travellers, both outbound and inbound, ... will need to be restricted in the carriage of liquids, aerosols and gels to 100 millilitre containers," he told ABC Radio.

How will this affect the cost of ministers travel for the next year?

COMMUNICATIONS Minister Helen Coonan spent more than $70,000 of taxpayers' money in just 10 days during a trip to the United States this year

flying and driving Prime Minister John Howard around Australia and the world over the past year cost Australian taxpayers well over $1 million. That included $308,000 on a two-week trip to the US, Canada and Ireland, $192,000 for five days in India and $247,000 for a four-day sweep through South Korea, Pakistan, Malta and the UAE. Mr Howard's use of Commonwealth cars cost about $170,000.

Nationals leader and Deputy Prime Minister Mark Vaile, while still trade minister, spent more than $375,000 on travel in the six months to June 30. This included $89,000 on a five-day trip for an OECD meeting in Paris in May — a rate of $17,800 a day. Mr Vaile also spent $106,000 on a nine-day visit to the US and UK in March for a review of the US-Australia free trade agreement and World Trade Organisation meetings.

Ministers gots to travel, I am just jealous, I could use those dollars for a lot more return and better photos, with a little left over for serious rehab.

warne IS love

if you read one thing this year, you should read a lot more.

http://www.usip.org/isg/iraq_study_group_report/report/1206/index.html

key finding: bush is an arsehole who lied up until he was caught lying, then he changed tack and lied about his lying ways, the little scamp.

some more lies, courtsey of the Long War (war on terrorism's):

Arar, a 34-year-old software engineer, was traveling on a Canadian passport when he was detained at New York's Kennedy Airport on Sept. 26, 2002, during a stopover on his way home to Canada from a family vacation in Tunisia. After his release from a Damascus prison in 2003, Arar made detailed allegations about beatings and whippings with electrical cables, which Canadian authorities have come to accept as credible.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/12/06/world/main2234727.shtml

JOHN Howard and Alexander Downer sparked Australia's biggest biological terror scare last year when they exaggerated test results to claim white powder sent to the Indonesian embassy in Canberra — later shown to be flour — was a "biological agent".

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/howards-bioterror-distortion/2006/12/06/1165081019778.html

...........................
as a sidelight, I would like to thank the religious leaders of australia for their recent support of efforts to highlight the dangers of global warming and enviromental destruction. Unlike their american equivalents (especially the extremely radical, yet mainstream, evangalical church groups) who have denied that any problems whatso ever exist and anyone who claims there is even evidence of global warming are in the pay of homosexual, communist, satanists. Its not often that I get to thank superstition mongers for anything, but here I will gladly extend my thanks and thank the non existant deity that I live in australia.

My thanks to Kevin Rudd also for dumping on his party hack arse, Anthony Albanese. With the enviroment shaping as a key election issue, now is not the time for a wart on the parlimentary process to be given such a key portfolio, it can no longer be considered a reward for backdoor party shennanigans.

On the political gutter side, pauline hanson, the human contraceptive:

The former One Nation leader ruffled feathers with the announcement yesterday she was planning a return to federal politics and would campaign about industrial relations laws and the ease with which Muslims and "diseased" Africans were entering Australia.

"They are of no benefit to this country whatsoever, they'll never be able to work."And what my main concern is, is the diseases that they're bringing in and yet no one is saying or doing anything about it."

from bob brown:

"Her profile makes this country look ugly, makes it look racist, makes it look nasty and we pay for that,'' he said. "She is world famous for the racist comments that she makes and it does damage Australia.

frat crunts

To those who ask, would you rather have the Butcher Saddam in power?
The Iraqi answer: well sadly, yes.

What will drive the US dollar down and send the economy broke, just like the good old days of vietnam, forget the bullshit about US readiness:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/04/AR2006120401347.html

From the White House point of view, Bolton's appointment appeased the know-nothing foreign policy crowd while rewarding his longstanding loyalty to the Bush dynasty. That loyalty had been shown most memorably in 2000, when the man who has spent the past year preaching democracy to the members of the United Nations strode into a library polling place in Florida yelling, "I'm with the Bush-Cheney team, and I'm here to stop the count."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/12/05/opinion/main2230001.shtml

one of the best docos I have seen tracing the spread of aids

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/aids/view/

on the back of the billions given to radical evangalical groups throughout africa in the guise of AIDS funds, kansas comes to kenya. radical christian watch:

http://www.livescience.com/othernews/061203_richard_leakey.html

for shame. Radical christians are slowly becoming the mainstream, watch out world, the second dark age is coming. Abstinence never tasted so good, nor the corruption of science and faith.

too late the dark ages are here, by law. the bravest journalists in the US yet again scoop the opposition

TOPEKA, KS—In response to a Nov. 7 referendum, Kansas lawmakers passed emergency legislation outlawing evolution, the highly controversial process responsible for the development and diversity of species and the continued survival of all life.

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/55807

http://news.independent.co.uk/people/profiles/article2037496.ece

tales of the drug war
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1962643,00.html

The story turns on one extraordinary fact: playing a central role in the House of Death was a US government informant, Guillermo Ramirez Peyro, known as Lalo, who was paid more than $220,000 (£110,000) by US law enforcement bodies to work as a spy inside the Juarez cartel.

coz I love it
http://www.archaeology.org/

mmmmmm old dirt

negroponte'd (and other sordid tales)

While banging my head on the keyboard last nite, I discovered a couple of bits of crap from the start of the year that I hadn't realised I'd written. Now seems as good a time as any to shove em in yaw face:

negroponte'd

The runway would have been icy as the anonymous transport plane flew from Bosnia to Baghdad via any number of unknown pit stops, its cargo, 20,000 plus surplus AK47's.

Its January 2006, and just what Iraq ordered, more guns. Where is the last place on earth more guns are needed? Seriously, does Iraq need more guns? These had just been purchased from the mountains of left over munitions sitting in various dumping grounds and warehouses throughout the nominally peaceful former Yugoslavia, just waiting to be recycled into the next conflict.

Somewhere between Bosnia and Baghdad, the cargo disappeared into the hands of unknown persons.

It barely made the papers.

That's what happens when your countries been Negroponte'd.

The suspicion is that the arms have fallen into the hands of the insurgency, fallen, silly word, sold, stolen or donated are better. At least that's the underlying theme, there is simply no way to know where the guns are, they may well be sitting in the Green zone, bargain presents for Ramadan.

Suddenly, a new splinter group appears bearing strikingly similar arms and troublesome neighbourhoods begin to lose large swathes of their males between the ages of 15 and 65, all executed, tortured and mutilated. Death squads roam around in police and army uniforms indiscriminately killing, paid for with government money and directed from within by US friendly elements of the government. Each and every death is recorded as a victim of terrorists. Chaos gets that little more deadly.

Your country has been Negroponte'd, the enemy of my enemy is now an employee.

Those charged with keeping public order are now one of main elements in creating the mayhem, a viscous cycle begins and chaos becomes more chaotic. Once your country has been Negroponte'd, the population becomes hostage and victim to all sides, the insurgents/freedom fighters/terrorists on one side, the government forces on the other (and this includes insurgents/freedom fighters/terrorists acting under covert government pay and control, hence police officers dragging people away from road blocks and their bodies being found a few days later), only the dead prosper.

Donald Rumsfeld in a striking statement while on a friendly visit to Algeria, declared that this country could be the template for defeating the opposition within Iraq. Algeria had already been Negroponte'd, with some estimates placing the blame for 80% of deaths in the ten year civil war on the army or elements in league with and armed by the military. The war on terror becomes the war of terror where shadowy para militaries hunt and slaughter by night and by day hunt themselves. In all some 150, 0000 to 200,000 people died before a weary truce of sorts was declared, the opposition now buried and those left are given a choice toagree with the government or ..there is no alternative.

There's an inhuman, brutal reality to Rumsfeld's assertion, the Algerian civil war eventually morphed into an uneasy peace along similar, yet very different lines as Afghanistan. Years of war, where no family was left untouched by tragedy, simply wore down any resistance through the mathematics of attrition, torture, maim and murder as many 15-65 year old males from potentially rebellious villages and you must run out of willing opposition. The organism that survives this process to rule is at best a benevolent dictator and remains so for many years until an opposition reforms and what is an opposition if it knows that it cannot present an idea which the rulers object to lest it be wiped from the face of the earth and the cycle begins again.

Rumsfeld may well have been talking more of the ideals needed to defeat the resurgence of Islamism as a political tool, after all the rebellion began with the army overturning the results of a democratic election which the Islamic parties clearly won. Much was made of the chanted slogans of "one vote, one time" that rang in the capitals squares when the (PKI?) rallied in campaigns and at the eventual victory, justifying the armies overthrow and the brutal crackdown.

But this in itself was more a propaganda tool bolstered by the subsequent junta and a compliant western media much to afraid to have reporters on the ground. The slogan was not a policy that could be implemented without a referendum to change the constitution and as such, if indeed it was passed, a purely democratic process within itself. Would the people of Algeria have voted for a theocratic dictatorship, rather than the theocratic political party that they did vote into power? Its doubtful, a slogan at a rally in one square does not make forever, whereas a military junta potentially is.

The western world is struggling with the idea of democratically elected Islamic governments, it has no great problem with Islamic dictators (or most other dictators), it also strains at the idea of laws based upon Sharia as opposed to Roman law.

The "one vote, one time" has occasionally been adopted by the near perpetually underground movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, yet this pan arab movement has through its occasionally legal off shoots has rejected this line in favour of a genuine democratic platform and has done so for many years, yet the stigma remains. Its used as another tool of the oppressors to justify their oppression.

Chaos loves company and the biggest company in the world is the arms industry and it just loves it when a country has been Negroponte'd.

...............................................................................................................

the cold war

Perhaps the only good to come from the falsehoods behind the Iraqi invasion will be a re examination of the underpinnings of the cold war. Not that this will happen in a hurry, but even a cursory glance at the facts reveals another sham "war" fought with false pretences and sexed up intelligence. Chances are it will only ever happen in the halls of universities and never reach the real world.

Myths are much harder to counter with inconvenient facts when the worlds dominant nation thrives on such myths and the worlds leaders themselves buy into the underlying lies through silence. History wars are fought on these topics, difficult questions need to be asked, and they certain are not at the moment, one only needs to notice that the only department in Australia to have its budget increased above inflation each year, to have never suffered a cutback, is defence. Its basis is still the idea of perceived threats cut from the template of the cold war, no matter how false the threat, or how inadequate the army is in genuinely facing or thwarting the threat, it is immune from the scrutiny the rest of the community is frequently subjected to.

One myth which has come through from the cold war unscathed is the idea of the briefcase atomic bomb, its been raised by dick Cheney, condelese rice and is in various American/British intelligence reports as a real threat if possessed by "terrorists". The myth stems from CIA think tanks of the 1970's, could an atomic bomb be miniaturised to fit within a briefcase? The answer from the boffins within theses agencies was that it was theoretically possible. There is a theoretical possibility that the US defence force built one or more, maybe, but that will never be confirmed or denied.

From this flowed the idea that if it was theoretically possible to build such a device, therefor the Soviet Union would also have thought of doing it, and once more like a raging river of thought, flowed the "fact" that the Russians must indeed possess such a dangerous, easily conceal able weapon. This ignores the real facts, that the soviets did not possess such a weapon, that the state of soviet science/manufacturing was incapable of creating such a device and that it was never more than a fantasy scenario dreamed up in a think tank. One only needs to look at the state of the pride of the soviet space fleet, MIR, to see the actual, as opposed to fantasy, state of the evil empires capabilities.

Despite the fact that the idea originated within the Pentagon and never really reached beyond the Pentagon, it was absorbed within the myths of the cold war as truth and has been repeated ever since as if it were an object which will wipe out a fair slice of humanity. One of the latest incarnations of this myth is that there are currently one and possibly three of these fabricated bombs floating around the planet unaccounted for just waiting to be sold to the highest bidder in the panoply of terrorist groups on the market.

I've heard this tall tale backed up by a retired soviet general, confirming there existence and there unknown whereabouts, no doubt seeking a fill up for his woeful Russian pension from the CIA or one of the newly spawned private terrorism expertise organisations. But then there are numerous Russian ex generals who seriously claim that the soviets have captured flying saucers and make a good living selling forged documents to ufologists throughout the world, they are as valid yet somehow dismissed a lot quicker.

Today's ex-evil empire is a hotbed of ex military types looking to profit from their once feared reputation, the truth of their poverty would simply shame their nationalist fervour. They did once claim ownership of half the world and yet the best piece of technology to come from the soviets is still the AK47. Name one other world changing Russian invention from the last fifty years, name one piece of technology you use which originated from the soviet empire? You have one hundred hours to complete this task before you give up in frustration.

The flow of the narrative from the cold war to the long war has been breathtaking in its audacity, spinning the same lies to the same ends with little change to the underlying need to produce a shred of non existent proof. In deed the very lack of any proof is used as a justification that it must be true, denial becomes a confirmation and reaffirms the underlying belief, why would the Russian's deny the existence of something unless it did exist. Throw in the above mentioned ex soviet military in need of cash and if you really are pressed they can provide on demand documents at very easy prices. Stolen Alien autopsies were one of the great growth industries after the berlin wall came down, secret soviet files from the rambling archives of a secretive regime only proves a large bureaucracy was needed to wither the state from within.

If you set aside the trillions of dollars recycled from the public purse into the defence/security/terror industry, much of it still geared for a replay fo the great battles of WW2 which will never be fought again, the problem with the narrative is that it allows real threats to be marginalised. At the very moment the US is vastly increasing its security/defence budgets, the Bush administration has radically cut back on programs that can defuse the threat of terrorists gaining control of a nuclear weapon. One in particular employed ex soviet nuclear scientists and techs has been slashed to almost nothing, another cleaning up and securing the ancient dilapidated soviet nuclear arsenal has been practically eradicated. These programs should be the responsibility of the former soviet union, yet since the system we all feared for so many years, disintegrated, revealing itself to be morally and fiscally bankrupt, we are forced to provide these facilities in order to ensure our own safety. We cannot do this if we chase fantasies while ignoring the very present facts of rusting warheads left in silos guarded by conscripts who may or may not be paid from one year to the next, the same goes for the myriad of scientists who are in much the same boat.

The mere fact that these programs exist must tell us something of the true state of fiction that was the cold war. Dilapidated infrastructure, scientist and soldiers who scrounge for money on the black market, a nuclear threat which is in near chaos and on the verge of collapse. Forty five years of being told that this was the greatest nightmare threat the world faced? Now we face another forty five years of the same with only the name changed, the American economy boomed with the introduction of the "Peace Dividend" under Clinton, budgets balanced and went into surplus with the fall of the wall, now they are back to record deficits and as I heard one economist say the other night the possibility that the US dollar within five years will be rendered worthless. Why? Because of 19 men with stanley knives, most of whom would have been on the CIA payroll during the afghan war of 79-90 had they been old enough? No, because the myths which have ruled our lives for the past sixty years have not as yet been challenged.
Ronald Regan despite what you may be told, did not win the cold war and the threat of the soviets did not exist in anything like the magnitude we were lead to believe.

The narrative of myth is so much more powerful than rationality and sanity, Christianity is the ultimate proof of this, the cold war, another, the long war just another which we may be able to change chanel on before it embeds itself as just another perpetual fragment of virtual truth endlessly regurgitated until it is true.

the gulag archipelago volume 4

I know I know, change of leadership at labor party. should make a comment, but cant be arsed, while I should, I really dislike the little worm Rudd, which of course means that he is "electable". I am not that warm towards the crouching hawk, little target, Beeagly, I am essentially for a vote against howard, the man I consider has so utterly wasted the boom times that he will be looked upon in history as equal to his hero Pig Iron Bob Menzies, the english scum who destroyed australian science and wasted the lasted sustained boom on fucking sheep. So lets hope labor can finally be a real alternative and not just an lite version of the present tossers. Let me hear that luke warm applause for the rudd - gilliard package.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/30/AR2006113000912.html

About 3 percent of the U.S. adult population was incarcerated or on parole or probation at the end of last year, a government report said today.

All told, a record seven million men and women were in the U.S. correctional population, which includes parolees or those on probation at the end of 2005, according to a report by the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics.

The majority of federal prisoners--men and women--were incarcerated for drug offenses.

Forty percent of the population was black, 35 percent white and 20 percent Hispanic.

The report also noted that the federal prison system was operating at 34 percent over capacity at the end of last year.
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Creationists in schools alert
brendon nelson will be proud

the government has made it clear that "neither intelligent design nor creationism are recognised scientific theories".

http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,1957858,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=1

heres the font of all bullshit:

http://www.truthinscience.org.uk/site/

teach the kids well, truth is just a lie that we make fit with evidence. 7 days to create the world, jesus just wasnt trying that week, he could have done it in three without flexitime. And remember, god put fossils in the ground to fool people into thinking the world had a natural order and dinosuars and men lived in peace in the garden of eden before that skank eve came along and did her booty call dance with the snake.